Saturday, July 21, 2012

AUTHOR INTERVIEW & GIVEAWAY - Dianna Hardy

Welcome, can you tell us a little about
yourself how long you've been writing?

I’ve always written. I wrote my first
story, Little Miss Rainbow, when I was eight years old, stapled it together,
showed my family, and haven’t really stopped.

Other than writing, what are some of your
passions in life?

There are so many things I miss
having the time to do. I used to be out and about quite a lot, hiking in the
country, through woods… I’m quite a spiritual person too, and I’ve been away to
Pagan festivals and shamanic workshops in the past. I also went to DramaSchool,
and set out to become an actress after that, although that took a back seat
because I found so many other things so interesting that I didn’t have the
motivation to focus solely on acting.

Family life, since having a child, has made
some things more difficult to do, and I guess that’s why I got back into
writing. It was a way to express that side of myself that I can no longer
commit to. Having said that, now that I’ve begun writing fiction again, I can
never see myself stopping. I’m back where I used to be when I was seventeen and
wanted to be a writer. I’m not famous, I’m not well known, but the fact that
I’m doing it is a dream come true in itself.

Other passions: keeping fit, singing,
playing the guitar, reading my favourite authors, studying something of
interest, drawing and painting, dining out, going on holiday or exploring
somewhere new, and I’m sure there’s more I just can’t think of right now.

How long does it usually take for you to
write a book?

I’m a slow writer, partly because I’m also
a full-time mother to a three year old, and partly because I edit profusely as
I go. I write anything between 200 and 2000 words a day. I can write more, but
it’s rare. So a regular sized novel can take me anything from one to six
months to complete. It’s dependent on the novel itself, how easy it is to
write, personal situation, and frame of mind.

Can you share a little of your current
work with us?

I’ve just finished writing a paranormal /
urban fantasy romance, The Demon Bride (book three of
The Witching Pen Novellas). It’s now in editing stages and ARCs
should be ready soon J This
entire series has been one hell of a ride – I’ve loved every minute of it – and
on the 27th July, it will have been one year since book one was
released, which is just awesome!

Each of the three books have been so
different from the other: book one, The Witching Pen, was almost like a sweet romance, book
two, The
Sands Of Time, had a definite dark edge to it, and book three is equally
as dark, if not moreso, with an emphasis on ‘intense love’ as I like to call
it. And that’s just the romance. There’s a heavy plot interweaved throughout
the whole trilogy that will carry forward into the spin-off novel, The
Last Dragon, that’s out next year.

In Twitter fashion use 140 characters or
less, sum up The Witching Pen Novellas series for us:

(This is actually taken from my Twitter feed) Three women,
three destinies, one apocalypse... The battle for free will has begun
http://www.thewitchingpen.co.uk
‪#PARANORMALROMANCE ‪#URBANFANTASY

Will we be seeing a following book to
this story?

Yes. The
Last Dragon will take off where The Witching Pen Novellas end.
It’s a spin-off novel, only because it’s not a romance – in other words, it
will not focus on one couple’s relationship, but on the interactions between
all the characters, and the very awesome plot ;)

Please feel free to comment below if you’ve
got any questions at all about my writing or my books. Thanks so much for
stopping by, and a huge thanks to Paranormal Addicts for having me on
their blog J

The Witching Pen (book one in the series) is available as an eBook,currently at the
offer price of $0.99 (list price $1.99), and also available in paperback.

Dianna
Hardy is a multi-genre author of paranormal things, dark things, poetic things,
sexy things, taboo things, and sometimes funny things. Writes about witches,
demons and angels. All info can be found on her website DiannaHardy.com.

GIVEAWAY!

Dianna
is giving away signed paperback copy of the first book in her series,The
Witching Pen (open to UK,
USA
and AUS)

It's definitely hard. I think the hardest part is having the opportunity to sit down and write once those ideas come to you. I'm often inspired by images, so I'll look on art / design / photo websites for pictures that capture my imagination, and sometimes a plot will form in my head.

If you have ideas, Kelly, I think just try to sit down and write them whenever you can, even if you're writing them in diary format / note format instead of as a story. I see the body and brain as something that needs training. Even if you're skilled in writing, you still need to "train" like an athlete does, and the more you sit down and write (anything - even gibberish), the more you are training you mind and body to get with the programme you want for it.

(Failing that, you'll need to ask your muse to hold a gun to you head!)

We're so happy to have you on the blog Dianna! Toni is AMAZING at doing our pretty blog posts!!! I'm so glad too LOL! :) <3 And I agree, we'd love to have you anytime hon! :) I love all your questions/answers! and I'm new to writing myself so seeing that you write 200-2k words per day is a bit inspiring to me because I feel like a slacker if I do only 200 or 400 or 1k LOL considering some crazy people do like 10-20k a day *eeek* :) so its nice to know others are like me :) its hard balancing family life/home life with writing so its nice to know I'm not alone... wonderful interview :)

Dianna, since I found you through facebook I have been so damn amazed at your writing. I LOVE your books and can not wait to read more from you. You have wonderful talent, and to be able to write while you have a three year old. Props to you I lose my train of thought with my 5 year old lol.

Have you ever, written a character and ended up not liking how you wrote them out to be? Either they were too dark, or too good, or not the personality you were looking for?

Hi Autumn! Thank you so much, and it's great to see you outside Facebook :)

I actually had problems writing Gwain in The Demon Bride. As a "person", he's quite private, and it was literally as if he wouldn't let me inside his head to get to know him. I re-wrote him a couple of times, and then I threw his part out, and concentrated on Mary instead, and as Mary developed, so did Gwain actually, and he became much easier for me to access. It was as if he trusted me with himself, now that I had done Mary justice, lol!

You know I love your writing style Dianna, seriously! I am in constant awe as to how you can make 200 + pages go by so quickly, and 2 make 200+ pages read almost 'epic-like'.My question: Out of all 3.5 books in this series, which was your favourite chapter to write and why?Thanks for the awesome giveaway. I would love to get my hands on a signed paperback.

And holy hell, I really had to think about your question. I'm not sure I can narrow it down to a favourite. I liked the writing the "plot twist" in The Sands Of Time; I also liked writing the jail scene in The Sands Of Time. Those are the two chapters that really stand out for me. But there are MANY wonderful moments in The Demon Bride that I loved to write, esp. involving the dialogue between Gwain and Mary, and their thoughts too. I could say the same about Karl and Elena in Wilted and The Witching Pen - they have some great dialogue (although theirs is more sweet and cute).

Ugh... nope, can't pick just one chapter - it's sort of like choosing one limb over another for me - I need all my limbs to work properly, and love them all equally, lol!

Erika, I've written poetry (contemporary and gothic), erotica and non-fiction (mind, body, spirit / occult). I have a love for all of them, but by far, fantasy fiction (whether paranormal romance, dark fantasy or urban fantasy) is my favourite :)

If my own books (The Witching Pen Novellas), read The Witching Pen first (then you can read the bonus, FREE short story, Wilted - this can also be read first as an intro if you prefer), then The Sands Of Time, and lastly The Demon Bride which is released on 31st August. All info on the series is here: http://www.thewitchingpen.co.uk

If you fancy something a bit more gothic and "dark fantasy", try 'Til Death Do Us Part (an adult retelling of The Little Mermaid) - it's novelette length (like the original fairy tale): http://thelittlemermaidretold.blogspot.co.uk/

My question would be how do writers choose their editors? do you choose them or does the publisher choose them?I honestly do not understand how that works,iv`e heard several authors make comments about changing editors because they were unhappy with them.

Hollow May: My writing routine is a little chaotic :) Mostly, I write when my daughter is in bed - so between 9pm and 2am in the morning. From September, she'll be going to school in the mornings, so I'll then be writing in the mornings too, hopefully.

Daphne: If you're published by a publisher (whether small or large) they have an editor that goes over your work. If you are self-published, you have to hire your own editor. When you hear of people saying they need to change their editor, they're most likely to be self-published, because if you're published by a publisher, you have no say (or very little say) in who edits you.

Oooo, hard question for me. There's no one thing. I'm usually only in the mood to write if I've had some time to myself and feel chilled out in my own space. Unlike a lot of other authors, I prefer silence to music when writing. I'll listen to music for inspiration AFTER my writing stint, but not before or during.

Or, occasionally, if I'm angry, I'll belt out a short story (example: http://thelittlemermaidretold.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-was-she-thinking.html) - it's like therapy, lol.

More often than not though, it's just an act of discipline for me. I'll sit down in front of my manuscript after my daughter's gone to bed, and start writing one sentence, even if I don't feel like it. Sometimes one sentence doesn't turn into much, but usually, one sentence will turn into ten, then one hundred, and so on...